rat cage size

I hope this is the right place for this. I was looking for a cage to put my breeder rats in. I had a hard time spending over $60 for a cage that seemed small so I broke down and made on. The cage is 22Lx12wx36T. It has 3 levels and 4 shelves with a house and ropes for them to climb. It took me only 4 hrs to make and cost me less than $12 to make. I am surprised at how easy it was with the right tools It is made out of 1/2 x1/2 hardware cloth. I have a plastic tub under it. My question is do you think this would be good enough for 4 rats and can I leave the femals in it with their babies or should I put the pregnant females in an aquairum? Thanks

As long as you have a box of some sort with bedding for the female to care for the young you could keep her in there. The pups could fall through the mesh or get squished. When removong and re-introducing one you many times have fights.

Note: if you have more than one male you will probably have to remove the female since there is a good chance the male that didn't father the pups could kill them.